PREVIEW: SHEAFS launch single with sold out homecoming at Sheffield's Rocking Chair

Richard Derbyshire

Rising indie stars SHEAFS are heading home to Sheffield this weekend to launch their new single and they’ve promised an explosive set for their South Yorkshire fans.

SHEAFS are on the This Feeling tour with Sugarmen, RALE and Rainbow Maniac with a sold out date at The Rocking Chair, Sheffield, Saturday, April 15. New single Mind Pollution is out today, Friday, April 14 buy on iTunes - CLICK HERE.

VIDEO: Watch their music video for previous release Nobody's Watching, produced by Sheffield Filmmakers Ben McFarlane and Jordan Carroll. Audio recorded by Alan Smyth at 2Fly Studios. The video is embedded on our ToyTube video player - or CLICK HERE.

They’ve already had a great start to 2017 winning Virgin Radio’s Fresh-fest competition and beating thousands of other entries onto the Glastonbury Festival Emerging Talent long list.

Now frontman Lawrence Feenstra, guitarists Charles Mellor and Chris Goodacre, bassist Callum Wright and drummer Charlie Eastap are on their first official tour across some of Britain’s biggest cities with This Feeling and release their latest song Mind Pollution hours before their Rocking Chair show in Sheffield with Liverpool’s Sugarmen.

The five piece got together at university at Sheffield Hallam and added an extra S to the handle of so many Sheffield landmarks to form their name. Winning on Virgin Radio saw them playing alongside singer-songwriter Dan Croll on DJ Edith Bowman’s breakfast show.

“Looking back, it was surreal, we didn’t expect to triumph, but we had loads of local support from clubs and venues in the city like The Leadmill and even Henderson Relish were right behind us as the only northern band in the final five” Laurence told me after their first show at Southampton’s Joiners.

“Drop Dead Clothing, the line set up by Bring Me the Horizon’s Oli Sykes, and Newcastle United even banged out tweets about us which was brilliant.”

“When the result was announced on Virgin Radio it was 10am and we were all in different places working or out and about” said Charles “I was doing a delivery throwing barrels around, I had the radio on, heard SHEAFS had won and dropped a keg on my elbow!”

“I’d just started a shift and had my phone off, so I had to wait to hear from these guys on our group chat that we’d won” added Chris.

SHEAFS new single Mind Pollution is out now

The lads also made the final 120 acts in this year’s Glastonbury Emerging Talent competition, which thousands enter and Declan McKenna won in 2015.

“Last year we applied and didn’t get anywhere so to get on the long list now is massive for us” said Charles. “Lawrence masterminded our video entry – he was film maker, director, producer, editor. Glastonbury likes things to be a bit different, so we must have done something right.”

With banging new tunes like Sheeba Shake, I Need You, and recent single Nobody’s Watching the band are reaping the benefits of recently overhauling their set list, as Lawrence explained.

“We had a lot of feedback about our older material and as musicians if you listen to advice - properly listen - and adapt then it’ll make you better – it’s made us better. There’s only one old song in set for this tour, they’re are all new except for the lead track to our last EP from November which we had to keep in.

SHEAFS celebrating single launch with sold out show at Sheffield's Rocking Chair. Photo: Lewis Evans.

“Mind Pollution, our next single, is one which we’re really excited about - it’s a first taste of our new music, our new sound”

“We worked with Sheffield’s legendary Alan Smyth at his 2Fly Studios” said Chris. “He’s produced everyone – Arctic Monkeys when they were early doors, plus Reverend and the Makers, Pulp and Milburn. His tracking really works for us, capturing our live sound on tape. We know if we’re going to win new fans it’s going to be through them hearing us live then sticking with us.

“It was mixed down in London with Paul Tipler whose credits include Idle Wild, Placebo and Dr Feelgood. We met Paul at the Virgin Radio competition, that’s how quickly things are happening.”

“They’ve both done a great job” said Lawrence. “Proper impressed with the outcome” added Charles. “It’s fantastic to get two sets of ears on it – Alan tracking in Sheffield, Tipler down in London mixing, we’d work with both of them again.”

The single has already had national exposure on John Kennedy’s evening show on Radio X.

How the five of SHEAFS got together is an inevitable mixture of luck and fate. Chris and Charles were on the same course at Hallam and started hanging out at gigs. “Then we met Lawro at Corporation on Milton Street where we noticed him singing along to some cool tunes at club nights” explained Charles.

“We soon met up with Callum, but incredibly we only met Charlie through an advert despite him being only one door down in the same student halls as Chris and me for four months. He’s a fantastic drummer, but we’d never heard him banging on the saucepans.”

Linking up with Callum also led to support from Wright’s Roofing of Hucknall, Nottinghamshire and the use of their six-seater Vauxhall van, nicknamed The Tank, is something the lads couldn’t be more grateful for, along with all the other support from fans, friends and family.